Crack down on dodgy dealers to beat metal theft from farms Kendall
NFU President Peter Kendall has thrown his weight behind the campaign for tougher regulation of unregistered scrap metal dealers, in order to attack the epidemic of metal theft, which has been causing huge disruption to farms and other rural businesses.
Speaking at a seminar on rural crime organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) at Kettering on Thursday (see embargo), Mr Kendall described metal theft as a “scourge”.
“It is not just the metal which is stolen from farms which is the problem, although that can be bad enough, if it’s a metal gate which is taken and livestock get out onto a main road,” he explained.
“The biggest problem is the knock-on effects when copper cabling has been targeted, and entire areas lose their broadband access. For farms and other rural businesses, which are increasingly dependent on the internet to run their business, the disruption can be huge”.
Mr Kendall said that the NFU would be backing a Bill being promoted by Lord Faulkner in the House of Lords, which would strengthen the registration of scrap metal dealers and make it illegal for them to pay cash, so making it easier for police to trace stolen metal.
At present, although dealers are supposed to keep a record of transactions, sellers can give false names, and if the deal was in cash, further tracing becomes very difficult.
“The vast majority of scrap metal dealers run good businesses to high standards”, said Mr Kendall. “It is the unregistered dealers who are the problem, and that is where the crackdown should be targeted.
“Another modern menace in the countryside is fly-tipping, recognised by the Farming Task Force report. Urgent action is needed to discourage illegal tipping as well as solutions to clear the waste from farmland,” he said.
“Jim Paice proposes a fly tipping summit, a welcome first step, but we need to move on from talking and gathering more evidence. We want a common-sense approach, which would allow farmers to take action to clear illegally dumped rubbish to the nearest tip, without the hassle of waste license or charge.”
On rural crime more generally, Mr Kendall said that partnership working between police and farmers, through farm-watch schemes and e-mail or text networks, was the key to both prevention and prosecution.
“The fact that this conference is being held at all is an important step forward, because it signals that the police do take rural crime seriously and are prepared to listen.
“Rural crime and, just as important, the fear of rural crime, is like a nagging, chronic pain, which every so often erupts into spasms of real agony, as fear becomes reality, and we experience the shock, the disruption and the sense of violation which comes with really serious crimes like arson, burglary and livestock rustling.”